


At The Skating Pond

by mrs_vh



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Boys Kissing, Confessions, Fluff, Ice Skating, M/M, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 03:48:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13263000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrs_vh/pseuds/mrs_vh
Summary: Eddie goes to talk to Richie at the skating pond.





	At The Skating Pond

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this is so late! I had planned for this to come out last week, but it got a little chaotic with the holidays and how everyone in the house was sick. But it is here, just a little bit of sweetness. I hope you enjoy it! Xo

* * * * *

There was Christmas music playing softly over the speakers at the skating pond and the whisper of _snick snick_  of the single skater’s blades as they made their way around the oval ice. Eddie was a standing on a snow mound, bathed in moonlight. He could see the strings of white lights around the pond reflecting on the shiny surface and sparkling snow.

Richie moved so elegantly across the ice, long steps to make his laps scratch into the surface. Despite the freezing cold, he seemed untouched by the weather. Carefully, Eddie jumped down the snow mound, arms out at his sides for balance. His boots crunched into the snow, but Richie didn’t seem to notice Eddie moving closer.

It was between Christmas and the new year in Derry and the schools were still closed for break. The Losers had spent the morning together while on break, eating meals at the diner between snowball fights and sledding and snow angels and hot drinks at Ben’s house. But at some point, Richie decided to abandon the group, a scowl arched over his face. Something had happened only a moment before —

Oh yeah. He had kissed Eddie. And Eddie didn’t do or say anything.

Now as Eddie reached the edge of the pond, he expected Richie to slow down when passing by. But when Richie skated two more laps over the ice and didn’t even look towards his friend, Eddie realized that he was being ignored. There was no way Richie could have missed him, with Eddie being right there at the edge of the pond.

"Hey Trashmouth!" Eddie called out, his voice echoing in the cold air. " _Trashmouth_!"

He could see Richie’s shoulders shift and there was a puff of air from a sigh. Richie did one more lap around the rink, his head down and eyes on the ice ahead of him. Finally, he bent his knees and turned around to face his friend.

Eddie was in his short red puffy coat and Richie in a brown wool coat, cut between his hips and knees. Both were in knitted mittens and pull over caps and soft scarves. Richie appeared more annoyed by Eddie’s presence, shown by his lips held in a tight line. Eddie found himself suddenly nervous, now that he had Richie right in front of him. It had been so tense between them earlier that he didn’t want to make it worse.

"I think we should talk," Eddie said.

Richie shook his head as if he couldn’t believe that Eddie had interrupted his private skating to say that. He let himself slowly glide backwards, further away from Eddie. "Just go home, Eddie, I don’t have anything to say to you."

"Wait a minute, Richie! I’ve been looking for you — "

Richie made some kind of laugh and waved Eddie off, then turned to skate away. Eddie wasn’t sure why Richie was behaving like that. Not that he wasn’t used to Richie doing strange acts.

"Richie! Damn it..." Eddie looked down to the icy white surface. He could skate as well, but walking on the ice in boots could be difficult. But Eddie had to talk to Richie and he watched his friend skate farther away, so he huffed out a sigh himself and took a step into the ice.

Holy _fuck_ , was it slick! Eddie almost fell immediately and paused to catch his balance, heart pounding wildly in his chest. He tried to make skating motions with his feet, letting his boots glide on the ice as if wearing the blades, and that helped some. Until he nearly did the splits about halfway across and let himself roll into his back.

Now he was lying there, staring up at the circle of lights around the pond and the dark sky past that. There were teeny tiny stars scattered around and Eddie was sort of hoping they would all fall on him so he could disappear.

 _Snick snick snick_.

Richie’s skates moved him directly over Eddie, one foot on either side of his friend’s head. He looked down at his friend, lips twisted to try and hide his amusement, while he was still attempting to look irritated. "Pathetic," Richie shook his head.

"Shut it, _Richard_ ," Eddie told him.

He then reached up quick and snatched Richie’s ankles, holding them tight. Eddie pushed and pulled them back and forth to make Richie uneven and wobble, trying to force his friend down with him. He grinned when he heard Richie laugh at his attempts, but it took only a couple more pulls for Richie to stretch across the ice next to Eddie.

They sat up together in silence for some time. Richie kept his eyes down on his bent knees, arms wrapped around so his mittens could hold. Eddie crossed his legs Indian style and slid himself a bit closer. He wasn’t sure where to start, or even how to start, but they needed to talk.

"Look, Eddie...I can’t be your friend anymore," Richie started for him.

Eddie was surprised by Richie’s sudden loud tone, by the words his friend had used. "Why not?"

He watched Richie, suddenly acting the most strange that Eddie had ever seen. Richie hugged his knees to his chest a couple more times, then dropped them down and his hands collected in his lap, one mitten coming off to be adjusted. "I asked for help so I could talk to you, so I could get everything right and know what to say. But everything that Ben told me to say...it didn’t sound right. Nothing he said sounded like me,"

He paused again and Eddie nodded, a way to encourage Richie to continue. "What did you need help saying?"

"Well, I...I guess I’m just a huge fucking mess with you. Mike said I always act like a bigger idiot when you’re around, so he finally dared me to tell you the truth," Richie explained. "And I meant to tell you today, when we were sledding on the hill. With all the other Losers, you know? You were just...you were  _happy_ , and laughing and smiling and your cheeks were pink and your eyes..."

Richie let his words drift off and Eddie knew he was thinking about the kiss in the hill. It had been sort of just sprung on Eddie, with Richie leaning in and kissing him so hard they could have gotten stuck together. And he had been so taken back by the affection that Eddie actually froze up — he couldn’t move. Richie didn’t seem to understand that and he stomped off down the hill, mouth set in a firm angry line and his eyes red and tear filled. The thought made Eddie shiver and he wrapped his arms around himself.

"I like you, Eddie. I like you so much that it fucking hurts. You’re the only one who really likes my jokes and my voices and you’re the only one who really laughs. You’re the only one I can go to when I’m having a bad day, and the only one I can trust. And...and you’re so pretty, Eddie. I could look at you all day and at the end, it still wouldn’t be enough."

Richie’s swallowed hard, his eyes flickering between his hands in his lap and Eddie. "I can’t  _just_  be your friend anymore, Eddie. Not when I feel like this about you."

It was completely obvious now to Eddie that his friend was in love with him. He tried to reflect back, and it was all right there in front of him. He wasn’t sure how he missed it all this time, but it could have been because of his own feelings. Maybe it was his own secret affection towards Richie that made him so blind, with Eddie always believing that their relationship would never go any further.

"You know, you could ask me how I feel about you. Since you haven’t yet," Eddie told Richie.

Richie glanced up to him with confusion in his eyes. "How do you feel about me?"

Eddie moved himself onto his knees, then put his hands to Richie’s legs for support and tugged himself closer to his friend. He took Richie’s hands in his and held them, soft mitten to soft mitten. He leaned in closer and peered into Richie’s glasses, at Richie’s eyes squinted curiously. "How about we try that kiss again?"

Richie’s eyes now widened behind his frames. "Are you fucking with me?" he demanded.

Eddie shrugged shyly, not to blow off the kiss but his building nerves. "You surprised me on the hill. I never thought you would do anything like that. So maybe I’ll be less nervous and I’ll be better this time."

For a minute, Eddie thought that Richie might have been short circuiting, from the way his lips moved to try and form words. Richie’s eyes were about to pop out of his head and it felt like his heart was going to explode. It seemed like forever before he nodded, agreeing with what Eddie had suggested. "Alright..." Richie managed.

"So go ahead and do what you were going to do before. You just told me how you feel, and now..." Eddie gave Richie’s hands another squeeze.

Richie cleared his throat, a puff of crisp white air between them. He adjusted his legs to sit more comfortable, closer to Eddie. "Um...so uh... _fuck_...okay, well, I'm going to kiss you now, Eds. Because all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was fucking twelve years old is kiss you."

Eddie felt his throat and lungs tighten and it wasn’t from his asthma. "Okay," his voice was quiet.

The corners of Richie's mouth turned up slightly, a little smile playing on his lips and he relaxed. "Good," he said. "So...I'm going to do it now,"

"Beep _beep_ , Richie," Eddie reminded him that he was stalling, but he knew it was because Richie was nervous.

With a smirk, Richie moving his hand to cup Eddie’s cheek. And then he leaned in and tilted his head slightly to kiss Eddie once again, properly, on the mouth.

He could feel Eddie’s smile when it pressed harder against his lips to return the kiss. They both kept their eyes closed, not able to see the bright pink flush over their cheeks. Richie’s hand slid up to push Eddie’s knitted hat off his head and let his fingers ruffle through the thick curls of his soft hair. He had always wanted this and now that he had it, Richie was never going back.

When they parted, he saw that incredible smile beaming across Eddie’s face. There was a twinkle of the skating pond lights were in Eddie’s warm brown eyes and Richie felt his heart squeeze so tight. And when Eddie took his turn to cup Richie’s cheek, it was then that Richie decided he could die and he would die happy. "So…what now, Eddie Spaghetti?"

Eddie made a ‘hm’ sound and looked around the skating pond, now completely silent. He would suggest skating, except he didn’t bring his skates, and both were too cold at this time. "Let’s go to my house. I’ll make you a sandwich, and hot chocolate,"

"With marshmallows?" Richie smiled.

"With marshmallows," Eddie smiled back.

* * * * *


End file.
